Found 32 article(s) for author 'Technology'

Why investors seem skeptical about the ride-hailing business. Mihir Desai, May 10, 2019, Audio, “Uber had its much-anticipated initial public offering Friday — despite losing $1.8 billion over the last 12 months, which makes it the all-time biggest money-losing IPO. The results were less than spectacular: Uber priced its shares toward the low end of estimates at $45 a share. They opened at $42 and closed at $41.55.” Link

How the Failure of “Prestige Markets” Fuels Populism. Ricardo Hausmann, May 9, 2019, Opinion, “Given the requirements of today’s technology, dismissing expertise as privilege is dangerous. That’s why a well-functioning prestige market is essential to reconciling technological progress and the maintenance of a healthy polity.” Link

The Plight of the Graying Tech Worker. William Kerr, April 2019, Paper, “High-skilled immigration is dramatically transforming the tech sector in the United States. 1 In 1975, immigrants accounted for one in 12 inventors in America. Today it’s one in 3.5. This surge is due to immigrant concentration in science and engineering fields, and factors that make the United States attractive, such as access to the latest technologies and high pay levels. The impact has been most evident in advanced technology sectors in areas such as Boston and Silicon Valley, but non-tech companies including JPMorgan.” Link

What’s Really Driving Disruption (It’s Not Technology). Thales Teixeira, March 28, 2019, Audio, “The emergence of a new technology is often cited as what drives the disruption of an industry or business. But that’s not true in most cases, according to Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira. Instead, startups disrupt established companies by decoupling the customer value chain — picking one aspect of the business and doing it better than the incumbent.” Link

Sovereign Difference and Sovereign Deference on the Internet. Jack Goldsmith, March 18, 2019, Paper, “This Response to Andrew Woods makes two points. First, building on one of Woods’s claims, and drawing on the work of Milton Mueller, it shows why the “fragmentation” charge frequently levied against sovereignty-based approaches to internet governance is misplaced. Second, it raises questions about the efficacy of Woods’s normative theory of judicial comity.” Link

A Tough Call: Understanding barriers to and impacts of women’s mobile phone adoption in India. Rohini Pande, October 2018, Paper, “Today in India, 67% percent of men own mobile phones, but only 33% percent of women do. South Asian countries in general are clear outliers among countries of similar levels of development, with India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh exhibiting some of the world’s highest gender gaps in access to technology. While the mobile gender gap matters in its own right, it is particularly problematic because it can exacerbate other important forms of inequality — in earnings, networking opportunities, and access to information.” Link

Identifiable Service Provider Effect: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness To Buy Time. Ashley Whillans, 2018, Paper, “In 2011, Time Magazine rated the sharing economy as one of the top 10 ideas that would change the world. Today, the possibility of outsourcing just about anything from grocery shopping, to dog walking, to standing in line for the latest iPhone is only a few clicks away. Companies such as TaskRabbit and Hello Alfred enable customers to outsource nearly any household chore by connecting people who need tasks done with people who have time to do them. With the growing popularity of the sharing economy, it has never been easier for consumers to outsource their most dreaded tasks to others. Yet, despite the rise of the sharing economy, very little is known about when individuals decide to ‘buy time.’ ” Link

Nobel perspectives: Professor Oliver Hart. Oliver Hart, July 29, 2018, Audio, “To help address the big questions that shape our world, UBS has sought out a number of Nobel Laureates in the economic sciences to ask them to share insights, discuss their research and open their inquiring minds. This week we’re hearing from Oliver Hart, the Andrew E Furer Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and 2016 Nobel prize recipient. Hart discusses his recent focus on the theme of corporate social responsibility and how this fits in to his life’s work on the theory of the firm and contract theory ” Link

Big Tech Is a Big Problem. Kenneth Rogoff, July 2, 2018, Opinion, “The prosperity of the US has always depended on its ability to harness economic growth to technology-driven innovation. But right now Big Tech is as much a part of the problem as it is a part of the solution.” Link

Does the West Want What Technology Wants? Ricardo Hausmann, June 27 2018, Opinion, “In a world where technological progress promises large benefits, the capacity to supply the necessary conditions may determine which economies are positioned for success, and which are bound to go the way of the Spanish, Portuguese, or Ottoman Empires. That should worry today’s West more than it worries China.” Link

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